As unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones) find their place in the forestry sector, Waypoint met with a pioneer in this field, researcher Stefano Puliti of the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO). In this wide-ranging interview, we discuss his commercial forestry learnings—including the always-hot topic of LiDAR versus aerial photogrammetry—and we delve into Stefano’s ongoing research, which could apply …

Leading researchers from Australia and New Zealand converged on Carabost State Forest in late February to test state-of-the-art sensor equipment mounted on unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) prototypes and a helicopter. The trans-Tasman group of 14 scientists from the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI), SCION, the University of Tasmania and Interpine spent three days in the Pinus radiata plantation capturing …

When most people think of drones – even commercial ones – they picture a quadcopter, or maybe a long endurance fixed wing. But at the larger end of the market, there are new developments in a totally different model of unmanned aircraft: an industrial sized, gasoline powered vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) craft. California-based UAVOS recently demonstrated their SURVEYOR-H at …

With a fleet of 312 unmanned aircraft, the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) Office of Aviation Services supported bureau operators, who flew nearly 5,000 missions in 2017, ranging from fighting wildfires to monitoring dams and spillways and mapping wildlife. The accomplishments of its unmanned aerial systems (UAS), or drone program, can be found in a recent report by DOI that …

Last Friday marked an important day for Forecaster clients as the maintenance and support of the product shifts to a new software provider. Forecaster is a forest planning and simulation software package developed by Scion over the past 10 years, with support from New Zealand’s forestry industry. It is a well-established tool for commercial forestry planning, and it will from …

Geospatial has always been considered as big data, both by its own advocates and many others, writes Ian Holt, a big data evangelist from the UK, in his latest column in ‘GIM International’. Yet large spatial databases and datasets are no longer enough to qualify as ‘big data’ as we now define it. Instead, they are just a piece of …

A model development and application guide for generating an enhanced forest inventory using airborne laser scanning data and an area-based approach. Airborne Laser Scanning data—also known as Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR)—enables the accurate three-dimensional characterization of vertical forest structure. Airborne Laser Scanning data have proven to be an information-rich asset for forest managers, enabling the generation of highly detailed …

In my last post, Five Biggest Commercial Drone Trends of 2017 and the Challenges Ahead, I used data from our 2017 Drone Market Sector Report to illustrate the major trends of the past year and describe the major challenges ahead for the drone industry. That post looked back, but this one looks forward, offering our specific predictions for 2018, including …

Delair has been an industry leader for industrial drone solutions for a number of years now – and they’ve just announced the next generation of high-performance industrial drones with the Delair DT26X LiDAR UAV. It’s the first fixed-wing to carry the sophisticated RIEGL LiDAR sensor. Founded in France, Delair has had the advantage of legally flying beyond visual line of …

The forest inventory business is changing. For forest professionals, keeping up-to-date on technological innovations and understanding the different sources of forest inventory information available (and the associated terminology) can be challenging. There are two acronyms in particular that invite confusion: NFI and EFI. NFI stands for National Forest Inventory and represents a type of inventory: an NFI is designed to …